GRB 221009A/Swift J1913.1+1946: Lick/Nickel telescope optical observations

We observed the field of GRB 221009A (=Swift J1913.1+1946; Dichiara et al., GCN 32632; Kennea & Williams, GCN 32635; Veres et al., GCN 32636; Bissaldi et al., GCN 32637; Svinkin et al., GCN 32641; Ursi et al., GCN Circ. 32650; Lesage et al., GCN 32642; Gotz et al., GCN 32660) with the 1-m Nickel telescope located at Lick observatory, California. Observations started about 15.73 hours after the burst. Filtered B,V,R and I band images were taken with each exposure time of 300s. We detect the reported optical afterglow and measure its brightness with the following mag calibrated to the APASS catalog. B = 20.18 +/- 0.2 V = 18.94 +/- 0.1 R = 17.59 +/- 0.1 I = 16.29 +/- 0.1 Additional images were also obtained with the 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) also located at Lick Observatory. A set of clear (roughly R) band images were taken and the measured magnitude is consistent with the above Nickel R band magnitude.